The Soundex system began during Franklin Roosevelt's presidency when the administration employed many people in government programs. The WPA, which employed people to do many things for the government, also organized the Soundex system.
The workers made a filing card for each household and listed every person in the census. Information on the cards include: name, age, location, birthday and relationship to the head of household. Not all of the original census information was recorded on the cards, but enough to identify the members of each household. All surnames were coded by giving a numerical value to each letter of the alphabet. The Soundex lists the census schedule county and page of all persons with the same surname or code.
The census records of 1880, 1900, 1910 and 1920 have been soundexed as of 1997 and other records will be processed in the future.
|
#1 = B P F V
#2 = C S K G J Q X Z #3 = D T #4 = L #5 = M N #6 = R |
Surnames with a prefix of Van, Von, De, Di, Le or La should be coded both with and without the prefix. It might be listed under either code. Mc and Mac are not considered prefixes.
Double letters should be treated as one letter.
- Example: Lloyd. The second L should be slashed out. In the name Herring, the second R should be slashed out.
Different letters side-by-side which have the same coding number should be treated as one letter.
- Example: Hamner. M & N are both in the #5 category, so they should be treated as one letter and the N should be slashed out.
- Example: Jackson. C, K and S are all in the #2 category, so both the K and S should be slashed. This rule also applies when the letters are at the beginning of the surname.
- Example: Pfister. Both P and F are in the #1 category, so the letter F should be slashed out.